This was the season, and particularly today was the day when Pennsylvanians turned decisively against PSU head coach James Franklin.

The Ohio game. "Now or never." "His best chance ever." And the loss wasn't close.

But today. Against a decapitated team with a fill-in who had less than 24 hours notice. 

The $10,000,000 yearly salary. 

The helicopter.

I know Pennsylvania. I know Pennsylvanians. They are a humble people. Modest. A college football coach getting paid $10,000,000 yearly and using a helicopter to recruit high school kids does not compute. Would not compute even if he won national championships yearly. $10M and the whirly-bird are showy and Pennsylvanians are not showy. 

Pennsylvanians don't expect national championships every season. They are delighted when one of their teams occasionally strikes it rich competitively. Like Pitt. An average 8-4 record over ten years is very good! Pennsylvanians like very good. They don't go nuts booing and screaming at players or coaches or anybody really. But they did today.

Pennsylvanians, like everyone, want to get ahead; want a life for their kids better than the life they have. They want hope. There is no h in Penn State or James Franklin, no o, three e's and only one p. You can spell Peee with that. PSU fans are in "No-Man's-Land", as a Twitter user penned. Pennsylvanians don't like No Man's Land. So when it's guaranteed that Penn State will lose at least two or more games every year, as the team has done for ten years under Franklin, then there is no hope for anything better, is there? 

Pennsylvanians are in a tight bind with Franklin. One end of the rope is woven with 8-4 and the other is woven with $10M a year and the ends are tied into a *tight* old knot. Yet, to untie the rope and get out of the bind, to fire James Franklin in other words, goes against Pennsylvanians humility that 8-4 really should be enough. But what makes them, nauseous really, is the cost of getting out of the bind, that is, Franklin's buy-out. I don't know what it is but only a couple years into a contract at $10M/year for ten years is sickening.

So Pennsylvanians are stuck. And that sucks.